Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition

Paper $29.00ISBN: 9780745335124
Published
March 2016
For Sale in All Americas and the Caribbean except Canada

Cloth $99.00ISBN: 9780745335131
Published
March 2016
For Sale in All Americas and the Caribbean except Canada

Activist, economist, geographer, evolutionary theorist, and philosopher Peter Kropotkin remains one of the most important and progressive anarchist theorists, pushing anarchist thought beyond an individualist model to a theory of communal anarchism. Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition seeks to rescue Kropotkin’s philosophy of anarchism from the neglect that it has suffered at the hands of mainstream histories of the social and environmental sciences. Jim Mac Laughlin provides a sustained and critical reading of Kropotkin’s extensive writings on the social, historical, and scientific basis of modern anarchism, giving a thorough examination of a number of key themes in Kropotkin’s philosophy, including his concerted efforts to provide anarchism with an historical and scientific basis; the role of mutualism and mutual aid in social evolution and natural history; the ethics of anarchism, including the ethics of scientific research; and the anarchist critique of state-centered nationalism and other expressions of power politics.

“Few know more about Kropotkin’s work than Jim MacLaughlin, and I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a lively introduction to the man's writing and its implications. Weaving Kropotkin’s specific contributions into the overall history of political anarchism and its major claims, MacLaughlin convincingly shows how the world today still needs the mutualism that the old Russian championed.”

Richard Peet, Clark University

“A deeply intellectual, yet readable account of Kroptkin’s life and thought, set in the context of a stellar account of the development of scientific anarchism. Essential for all critical thinkers and political activists desperately in need of a dose of optimism in these sorry times.”

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